During the manufacture of painted parts, such as automotive body parts industrial wastes are produced. By-products such as paint sludge particles and oils are produced and require proper disposal. Systems for concentrating, filtering and removing paint sludge particles and oils from mixtures derived from industrial solutions are necessary to meet environmental standards.
A common technique for capturing paint overspray/airborne paint particulate produced when operating a paint spray booth is to capture the particulate in a waterfall backdrop within the spray booth. The resulting water-and-particulate fluid mixture is then channeled into a suitable system in which the paint particulate is substantially removed from the water. The filtered water is thereafter advantageously recirculated back to the spray booth's waterfall backdrop to capture more airborne paint particulate.
A similar pre-treatment process is used prior to spray painting the part in order to remove oil residue that can be on the surface of the parts either from transport or from the cutting and pressing processes. Similar to the paint process described above, the mixture of oil and solution also needs to be treated. This particular process involves treating or washing the part with a solution to remove the oil residue. The solution with the oil residue is collected and channeled in a manner similar to the painting process described above.
The paint sludge and oil filtration systems discussed above often require large amounts of solution to be filtered. This in turn requires larger pumps and a larger or greater number of filters if necessary, to be used. Thus it is desirable to design systems that concentrate the contaminate (i.e., paint sludge or oil residue) in order to eliminate filtering and separating large volumes.
Another problem that can occur is during system shutdowns back pressure in the recycling lines cause mixtures of solution and contaminate to backup into the contaminate tank; it is desirable to have a system that will continue to filter and remove the contaminate in the areas where the backup can occur in order to reduce the energy consumption of the pumps in the system.
Another issue that can be encountered is that existing systems often lack the ability to adapt to drastic changes in fluid levels in the various tanks or account for foam and other coagulated particles floating on the surface of the solution which can give false readings as to the actual fluid levels in the tanks.
It is desirable to develop improved systems that separate the paint sludge more effectively. Thus it is desirable to develop systems that can adapt or account for such conditions.